Facebook Paper App

Many Facebook-ers already get their news from their News Feeds — but CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the rest of the Palo Alto-based company want to make that experience even more beautiful and visual.

Facebook Paper, which is available starting today, is a standalone iOS app that displays shared stories from your Feed and can also show you trending stories from across the web.

Facebook's Paper — not to be confused with the popular digital art app Paper (free) — joins many other worthy contenders in the "visual news app" category. Could it replace your current news aggregator?

Here's how Paper works:

• When you open the app, you'll see a reimagined version of your News Feed. Large photos and videos from friends appear in the top section and status updates at the bottom.
• Tapping any element (status update or photo) will open it up in full screen.
• You can add additional "sections" to your Paper. The themes range from Headlines to LOL to Tech to Food.
• Each section is curated by human editors at Facebook (not robots!) and features articles from publishers like The New York Times, CNN, and USA Today.

The immersive look and feel of Paper is very similar to the Facebook Home experience for Android, and we'll see whether or not Paper captivates an audience after US users download the app starting today. If Paper does prove to be better and more beautiful, why would we ever go back to the official Facebook iPhone app?